Story and Presentation
We play as the protagonist “Alan Wake”. He is not our typical save the day action hero, but he is just a simple and successful fictional novel writer. Our story starts when our soon to be hero decides to escape the pressure and expectations of the world which constantly wants him to churn out one successful novel after another. His place of choice for a vacation turns out to be a simple yet beautiful town called “Bright Falls” in the state of Washington.
Alan wake thought of relaxing in this town but as it turns out, as soon as he and his wife step in the town strange things start to happen, and then before you know it, Alan Wake starts experiencing strange paranormal phenomena and his lovely wife is suddenly taken away and goes missing, and then Alan tries to follow her and all hell breaks loose. Alan Wake’s peaceful vacation and life turns into a nightmare which he has to endure every moment experiencing paranormal phenomena and forces of darkness.
As it happens Alan Wake comes to a strange revelation that most of what is happening around him is a part of a novel which apparently he did not write but was thinking to write in the coming months, and finding this strange fact makes him go haywire, reality lapse starts occurring, our hero now does not know whether all this is real or some kind of a joke or a freakish nightmare.
The only hope he has to get back his sanity and his wife is to endure through the novel uncovering one chapter after another, and all the while he has to fight the paranormal dark forces using flash light and guns at his disposal, and thus our writer becomes a fighter ever on the run and on the chase to understand what is going around him.
Now let’s move on to the presentation part, this game is divided into episodes just like how a television series is divided into episodes. Each episode involves certain NPCs and different setting/environment and each and every episode comes with its own set of plot twists, cliffhangers and interactions which feels fresh.
With such a tone and presentation the game feels like a thriller series/movie rather than a game, this fact is made even more concrete by the addition of cutscenes which blend in with the gameplay naturally and from point to point Alan Wake himself kind of narrates the story and introduces new phenomena and environment while we are playing, all this makes us feel as if we are the protagonist and this ain’t a game rather this is a thriller movie/series, this experience is just fantastic and not describable in words.
